The Local Self-Government (LSG) department is set to launch a 'Clean Aquifer' campaign to map water bodies in every local body, grade the level of contamination, and identify major polluting factors as part of efforts to tackle liquid waste.
The department last week constituted a State resource group and core organising committee for chalking out the plan for the campaign and implementing it.
The order regarding this, issued last week, admits that Kerala, which was the one of the first among major States to achieve open defecation free (ODF) status, is now struggling with the second generation problems of leachate and contamination of water bodies.
The 15th Finance Commission also stipulates that 50% of the grants for the local self-governments and 100% of the funds for urban agglomerations, which was allocated recently, should be used for water and sanitation.
The department has observed that local governments are struggling to come up with viable projects for liquid waste management, and even where projects are sanctioned, they are facing stiff local resistance which in many cases effectively kills the project, and by extension, the solution to the problem.
This, along with lack of access to location specific technologies either conventional or nature based, lack of institutional capability have all contributed to the failure to resolve the problem of liquid waste management.
The campaign is being organised in this background, focussing it as a citizen education campaign that can highlight the need for clean water and the scope for addressing its pollutants, particularly liquid waste.
The department hopes that the mapping of water bodies in every local body and identifying polluting factors at the local level would generate awareness and sensitivity to the problem. The campaign would be followed by the local bodies creating projects to resolve the identified issues of contamination through their upcoming annual plans.
A massive campaign involving people's representatives, traders' organisations, voluntary organisations, residents' associations, educational institutions, NSS volunteers, and others, led by the local governments is also being planned over the next two months.
